20 February 2020 :

5th condemned Tennessee inmate opts for the electric chair. Nicholas Sutton has chosen the electric chair for his scheduled execution next week, opting like 4 other inmates in little more than a year for electrocution over the state’s preferred execution method of lethal injection. Sutton, 58, White, is scheduled to be put to death Feb. 20 for the stabbing death of a fellow inmate decades ago while serving a life sentence for his grandmother’s slaying. An affidavit signed on Tuesday said he waives the right to be executed by lethal injection and chooses electrocution. Tennessee is 1 of 6 states where condemned inmates can choose the chair, but it’s the only state where they’re actually doing so. They have argued unsuccessfully in court that the way Tennessee carries out lethal injection results in a prolonged and agonizing death. Sutton was sentenced to death in 1985 for stabbing fellow inmate Carl Estep after a confrontation over a drug deal. Sutton was 23 at the time and imprisoned for killing his grandmother when he was 18. He had also been convicted of murdering 2 men in North Carolina when he was 18.